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Guard Tour Systems

Many companies aim to provide protection of company facilities on twenty-four hour, seven day per week basis.
They epmloy security officers, whose duty is to provide periodic patrols of the facility in order to detect suspicious and abnormal actions.

Patrols should be executed according to established procedures. The patrol route should include all important points of the facility.
Depending on the size of the site, there can be several different routes and each of them can include different areas.
Patrols are made at least several times per shift.

Often guards work alone with no supervision. The lack of control can cause that guards remain at their posts and don't go on patrol.
On some occasions they can skip some points of the tour, especially if the access to this part is more difficult.

Guard Tour systems help to solve these problems.
In general, guard tour systems allows to control security officers work and forces the performing patrols according to the planned schedule and route.
If guards know that their activities are recorded they are motivated to follow the schedule and make patrols properly.
The system provides a record of all patrol activities, therefore all the activities deviating from the procedures can be quickly identified.
The written record can also be used for incident investigation and as proof of patrol activities for insurance companies or regulatory agencies.

Electronic Guard Tour Systems

ActiveView Software with cooperating devices is an example of electronic guard tour system.

Electronic guard tour systems are based on use electronic data gathering devices (Active Guard and Active Track) which are which are carried by the security officers during patrols.
An electronic data gathering device is usually a small hand-held device in the shape of a wand or small PDA with a few buttons.
The patrol route consists of the checkpoints. Those points contains tags that can be read by the device.
During a patrol, the guard visits each checkpoint and scans tag using the device. The information about meeting checkpoint and time is automatically sent to the system.
Therefore the employer knows that the guard was in the right place at the right time.
The guard can also send notification about any abnormal conditions found during the patrol.

Advantages of Electronic Guard Tour Systems

Large number of checkpoints possible

Small size of checkpoint tags, possibility to place them almost anywhere

Small devices, easy to carry

Ability to control performing the patrol by the guard, information about visiting checkpoints at the right time

Easy identification of missed stops and abnormal patrol activity

Ability to send alarm message with information about incident or abnormal conditions found during patrol